20011221 Lockergnome Windows Daily

12.21.2001 GnomeREPORT

Everybody get excited; they found a major security flaw in Windows XP! Like it's the only operating system that has holes? Before you whip out a well-polished "I told you so," why don't you ask Infinisource how they'd answer that question. I've said it once, and I'll say it a thousand more times: there is no such thing as a perfect computer. That, and the tallest nail always gets pounded. Now, I suggest you install the most recent patches before an exploit is unleashed. At least Windows XP has update notification turned on by default. Yeah, most of us "in the know" have already turned it off, but the feature wasn't designed for power users. We're just sitting here, waiting for the next bit of vicious code to strike. Have you ever seen a signature claiming that the e-mail and its attachment(s) were scanned for viruses? Don't always believe what you see or read, folks. Or what you hear.

Tonight was the world premiere of my first music video on TechTV. It was a Tribute to Leo. Viewers were genuinely surprised. Now, if you weren't already aware, Mr. Laporte is the world's biggest geek. In fact, he was sharing his knowledge on Regis & Kelly just the other day. Believe it or not, he plays with Windows, Linux, and the Mac. Leo's pretty much the closest thing I have to a role model. Before I knew about him, I used to follow the path of X the Owl. Meow meow nice guy meow. Oh, I need a vacation. Next week, I'll be able to relax for longer than eight hours. Gretchen and I don't have any special plans for the Holidays, though. We'll take a few trips to the movie theater, watch a couple DVDs, and babysit my executive producer's dog. My stockings will still be hung by the chimney with care, in the hopes that our dryer will soon be fixed. I was hoping to be playing with a brand new laptop, but... I don't think that's going to happen now (or anytime soon).

PC World Picks
Santa Slayer
Santa's Valley
SantaJam
SnowCraft
Elf Bowling 2
Snowman Kit

Did you hear about Microsoft's latest stunt? They filed suit against Michael Robertson's newest venture - claiming that "Lindows" sounds too much like "Windows." But that's not all. Everybody named "Bob" will have to change their name by next Friday or face a stiff fine. Redmond lawyers are also asking that whenever the word "word" is used that royalties be paid directly to Microsoft. We'll see how far they get. At least their support department believes that it's better to give than it is to receive (thanks to Betastream for the link). It's times like these when I'm reminded of something that someone once whispered to me: "Love, and ye shall be loved. There is no greater emotion. Now, take your hands off my [bleeping] sandwich." I miss Aunt Gladys. It wasn't a Christmas without one of her world-famous spatula impressions. Don't try to visualize that, please. You won't do it justice.

United We Stand,
Chris Pirillo

GnomeDOWNLOADS

Font List v1.1 [51k] W9x/2k/XP FREE

http://www.bitstorm.org/fontlist/FontList1.1-installer.exe
http://www.bitstorm.org/fontlist/
http://screenshot.lockergnome.com/fontlist.png

{View installed fonts} How many typefaces do you have on your system, anyway? I would say you have exactly more than a lot. Yeah, that sounds about right. So wouldn't it be cool to see all of them in your Web browser? By golly, you can - and all you need is Font List. Before scrolling through your faces on one Web page, you can remove fonts and change the sample text. Simply change the font size in your browser window to increase or decrease the preview. Heck, you could even save the Web page for future viewing.

Morten's WTeaTime v1.02 [2.0MM] W9x/2k/XP FREE

http://www.rz.tu-ilmenau.de/~mhalle/wtt_full.zip
http://www.martin-halle.de/wteatime.html
http://screenshot.lockergnome.com/mortenswteatime.png

{Earl Gray, hot} I drink coffee - and lots of it. A few others, however, prefer tea. If you're brewing up some leaves while working at your computer, use this timer to let you know when your drink is ready. Pretty neat, eh? Sure, if you're a tea drinker. You non-sippers shouldn't walk out just yet, though - cause wTeaTime will work as a regular stopwatch or timer. Hmmm, this water is too bland. I should have put something in it. "When the time is up, it will inform you by showing a message." Bottoms up! NOTE: I tried this with my coffee and it worked just fine.

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GnomeSYSTEM

Outside The Box Freeware

http://kickme.to/OTBSoft/

"Blowfish File Encryption is a console mode implementation of the Blowfish encryption algorithm. Delay & Wait For Time are both console mode programs, designed for batch file use. Delay simply delays execution of a batch file for a specified number of seconds. Wait For Time waits until the system clock hits a specific time before allowing batch file execution to continue. Drive Ready is a command line utility that checks to see if a specified drive is ready. EnvRep is a command line utility that allows you to use environment variables inside script files, registry files, batch files, macros, or any text file. Free Disk Space Checker checks to see if a specified amount of free space exists on a drive, and returns 1 if so or 0 if not. IniMod allows you to edit INI files from within a batch files or scripts." Many, many more.

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GnomeSOAPBOX

XP Bandwidth Freedom is a Myth
Scribbled by Mike Byrns

Yet another news outlet innocently spreading disinformation. It was wrong then, and no matter how many times it's written up as Gospel, it's still wrong. From the article, "XP seems to want to reserve 20% of the bandwidth for itself even with QoS disabled." I don't see any mention of the test methodology. I'd attribute that to the fact that no testing was actually done at all. The tweak author found a seemingly interesting setting, thought he understood it and began to boundlessly pontificate on the greatness of his "tweak." The truth is, unless you are running both QoS on a given network connection AND QoS-aware applications that are currently asking to reserve bandwidth on that connection, NO bandwidth is reserved. None. Nada.

Even when said applications are reserving bandwidth, they only do it before initiating a QoS-aware stream and they release it after. Try this for yourself: transfer a large file across your LAN while watching the bandwidth monitor in task manager. Now apply this self-proclaimed "tweak." Repeat the file transfer. Unless your copy of Windows XP contains different networking code than mine and the other few dozen folks who I've had try this over the past few weeks, you won't see a difference.

In order to rule out task manager "hiding" this bandwidth as was suggested to me by a few of the Microsoft conspiracy theorists, I had my LAN admin measure bandwidth between my port and the port my test machine was connected to by monitoring bandwidth usage at the Cisco switch that connects us. He says it's even QoS compliant. Guess what? NO DIFFERENCE. Please let your readers know! XP and Microsoft get enough bad press as it is, some of it (admittedly) well deserved.

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GnomeFAVORITE

Color Combo

http://www.colorcombo.com/

{Pick a color} A good Web designer knows that a color scheme is important. You want your site to stand out from the rest - and look good at the same time. You don't want an ugly mess that makes people sick to their stomach when they see it. Before you start throwing colors together (or invoking Technicolor yawns), pop over to this Web tool and see which colors look best together. Eh, perhaps that shade of green sitting next to a red wasn't so smart after all? "This hexadecimal & RGB chart scrolls, previewing multitudes of harmonious color combinations."

BONUS: SICK of the same old stupid stories people pass around like the FLU? Try This is True - weird-but-TRUE stories with fun commentary, fresh each week for free, for a healthy laugh. Subscribe now. And be sure to check out HeroicStories: Real people, real heroes, real stories.

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GnomeTIP

"There's a new worm on the loose! It carries a trojan which will download a virus onto your computer and..." Education is the best form of protection. Installing the latest software patches won't hurt, either. You know nasties by their more common names, though sometimes you'll see them appended with weird prefixes and suffixes. What do they mean? VBS. is a Visual Basic script; W32. is a 32-bit binary aimed at the Windows platform; OM. is an Office Macro virus which could infect Word, Excel, or Access documents; WM. is a Word Macro virus that usually attaches itself to the NORMAL.DOT file; DoS. is a Denial of Service helper; IRC. may very well infect your mIRC scripts. These are the most common prefixes you'll see. What about suffixes? "@m" is a worm mailer which looses itself every time you send e-mail; "@mm" is a mass mailer with which we're most familiar; "Family" designates extreme similarities to another nasty; "Gen" designates a similar threat type; "Worm" represents code that replicates and sends itself over a network. Any additional letter will typically signify a code revision. If you need more information, the keywords are: Virus Naming Conventions.

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And now, after you finish visiting George & Andrea's corner of the Web, watch as Gretchen rocks our little fuzzball to sleep.

Rock a Bye Puppy

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